Left-arm chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav rushed through Pakistan's batting order with a fifer in the middle overs. On the reserve day of the Asia Cup 2023 Super Fours game, Pakistan were bowled out for 128 (Naseem Shah, and Haris Rauf did not bat due to injuries) as India registered a thumping 229-run win at R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo. With the wicket of Faheem Ashraf to wrap up the proceedings, Kuldeep became the fifth Indian bowler to take a fifer against Pakistan.
Former Indian off-spinner Arshad Ayub was the first to achieve the feat in 1988. Nearly, nine years later, Sourav Ganguly did it in Toronto. Ganguly's 5/16 is the best bowling figure by an Indian bowler against Pakistan in ODIs. In 1999, Venkatesh Prasad took 5/27 in Manchester. The last Indian bowler before Kuldeep to take a fifer against Pakistan was Sachin Tendulkar who took 5/50 in Kochi.
Kuldeep conceded just 25 runs from eight overs. His 5/25 is the third-best bowling figure for India against Pakistan in the format.
The 28-year-old became the leading wicket-taker in Asia Cup 2023 surpassing Rauf and Bangladesh pacer Taskin Ahmed who have nine wickets each. Kuldeep has taken 10 wickets four four games so far including the group-stage clash against Pakistan where he did not get to bowl due to rain.
Kuldeep's victims on September 11 evening were Fakhar Zaman, Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, and Ashraf. In the 24th over, Zaman went for a slog sweep and got bowled. Salman got out lbw in an attempt to play a sweep shot. Iftikhar could not pick the length and handed an easy catch to Kuldeep on follow-through. Shadab tried to take the aerial route and got caught by Shardul Thakur in the deep whereas Ashraf got bowled.
Kuldeep’s fifer helped India register the biggest win by margin of runs in the India vs Pakistan ODI encounters. India's previous biggest win over Pakistan in the format came in 2008 when they won by a margin of 140 runs. For Pakistan, their biggest win over India came in the Champions Trophy 2017 final when the Sarfaraz Ahmed-led side won by 180 runs.
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